Film School Hideout

Like a brother from another mother, San Francisco-based Greg Bertens' second release as Film School is just similar enough to last year's self-titled debut to register as family. Hideout finds his band completely overhauled (after a crippling robbery and "creative differences") and much improved; this end result doesn't sound like another predictable addition to your nu-wave library. (But file between Echo and Interpol, if you must.) There's a shambolic fervor with tambourines, and cyclonic guitars, in places that recall Primal Scream's psychedelic rock. Other tracks drift into expertly crafted space. Hideout excels as mood music, with at least one stellar single ("Two Kinds") that creates a new and better one than however you felt before.